The City Council on Tuesday discussed proposals by two companies seeking to win a contract to collect garbage, recyclables and organic waste from customers citywide.

Republic Services, the current vendor, and CleanScapes, are vying for a seven-year contract with an option for another seven years, worth up to $20 million annually. The current contract expires next June.

The new contract will feature some key improvements for customers. They include: additional curbside collection of recyclables for single-family customers; on-call curbside collection of small electronics and appliances from multi-family customers; and online account management and electronic billing upon request.

Councilmembers are expected to select the preferred vendor at next week's council meeting. After that, staff will work to finalize the contract with the vendor before bringing it back for council approval in the fall.

Light rail group reconsideredThe council decided unanimously to reconsider its Aug. 5 appointments of the East Link Light Rail Citizen Advisory Committee until staff completes an assessment of the applicants' qualifications and ability to serve.

The formation of the CAC was directed as part of the light rail overlay section of the city's land use code, adopted earlier this year. Based on the land use code, the council will appoint seven to nine Bellevue residents to the CAC to represent a community perspective in design and permit reviews of light rail facilities in Bellevue.

City manager search accelerates The council reviewed materials that will be used to recruit candidates for the position of city manager. Once finalized, the job position will be posted and the executive firm hired by the city will begin recruiting and vetting potential candidates.

A reception is being planned so members of the public can meet the candidates. Councilmembers are expected to appoint a new city manager by the end of the year.

More information, including a tentative schedule for the city manager recruitment and selection process, is available as part of the council agenda materials.

In other council news:

Smart phone app: Council approved a three-year, $92,000 contract with PublicStuff Inc. to implement and maintain a new software application that will allow the public to use any smart devices to report issues, request information and learn more about city services, programs and initiatives. City staff expects to publicly launch this new, innovative application early next year.

Reducing commute trips: An agreement with King County Metro was finalized to continue providing support to employers to implement the city's successful Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) plan. In the last 10 years the rate of people driving alone to CTR-affected worksites in Bellevue has declined by 6.5 percentage points, removing approximately 2,000 vehicle roundtrips each day from streets and highways. The CTR plan, consistent with state law, requires employers with more than 100 employees to develop plans and take steps to reduce drive-alone commute trips. The state Department of Transportation will pay for $205,000 of the total contract cost of $235,000.